Conceptualising undergraduate research and enquiry

Another way of seeing the curriculum John Seely Brown (2003) Learning about Learning to be

dimensions of knowledge (Polanyi)

Explicit Tacit

situational understanding

Curriculum Contexts for undergraduate research and enquiry LIFE WIDE CURRICULUM

Learning for a complex world – the academic curriculum

Learning for a complex world – the practice curriculum

Learning for a complex world: care, wellbeing social & community enterprise

Help on campus Help in the community Tutoring in schools Caring for others

Learning for a complex world – the rest of life

playing sport travel family virtual world putting on a show looking after yourself being sociable part time work raising money

Conceptualising undergraduate research and enquiry ‘PRODUCTIVE INQUIRY’ John Dewey

A concept that bridges scientific, professional and common sense forms of enquiry,

John Dewey Logic: The Theory of Inquiry ‘the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole’

CONCEPTUALISING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND ENQUIRY Productive Inquiry

knowing can do in using knowledge as a tool in ‘productive inquiry’

–

One of the most important things that

‘deliberately seeking what we need in order to do what we need to do’ John Dewey

Productive inquiry is not a haphazard, random search; it is informed or disciplined by the use of theories, rules of thumb, concepts and the like. These tools of productive inquiry are what Dewey understands the term knowledge to mean and using knowledge in this way is an example of that form of knowing which Dewey called productive inquiry

(Cook and Brown 1999 p62)

Explicit Epistemic frame of Cook and Brown

forms of knowledge Concepts Stories

Tacit

Skills / experience

Individual Group

Genres

Explicit Epistemic frame of Cook and Brown

Concepts Stories

Knowing as action Tacit

Skills / experience

Individual

Genres

Group

Cultural Academy productive enquirers FACILITATORS Norman Jackson Nimmi Hutnick Vasso Vydelingum

workshop design and evaluation

17 student participants Sarah Campbell Y3 Psychology student on placement with SCEPTrE

evaluation of learner experience& on line staff and student perception surveys

Lori Riley M level student

micro-conversation research

Ben Mercer & William Patterson recent graduate

enquiring film makers

Cultural Academy

Productive Inquiry

Cultural diversity is a fact of life especially at the University of Surrey with over 3000 originating from over 130 different countries. A higher education that aspires to prepare students for the cultural complexities they will encounter in their professional and personal lives, must provide opportunity for learning through experiences of interacting and communicating with other cultures.

WORKSHOP 1

Sharing perceptions of the meanings of culture through a concept map.

WORKSHOP 2

A good way of enquiring into culture is to share beliefs by voting on propositions.

Cultural gifts

of food, music, art, poetry, language, symbols, clothes and images are an important part of the process of sharing cultures .

I don ’ t feel I fit into any specific culture Enquiry-rich experience

: Through a series of workshops, planning meetings and a conference, participants (students, facilitators and mentors) share their experiences and understandings of culture and its influences on their lives.

SUPPORT FOR LEARNING

• on-line social networking space to encourage sharing of experience • wiki to support the production and sharing of knowledge • mentoring scheme • learning through experience award to value and recognise the learning

LEARNING THROUGH LEARNING PRACTICES

• telling stories about cultural experiences • conversations about culture • reflection on past experiences • concept mapping • tools to aid cultural enquiry • proposition-testing using voting systems • making a film about the campus as a multicultural society • student teachers/facilitators • mentoring • student-led conference • student-led research • teacher- and student-evaluation

EXPERIENCE AWARD

6 students submitted an account of their experience and received the USSU Learning through Experience Award.

Students and staff participants evaluate the experience, co-write a conference paper and make a film about Cultural Academy

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Strongly disagree Disagree Don ’t know Agree Strongly agree

CONFERENCE

A student organised conference to engage the wider community and encourage the university to see the benefits of this approach to multicultural learning.

PLANNING MEETINGS / i-Festival micro conversation analysis ON-LINE SURVEYS AND MAKING A FILM ABOUT ‘OUR MULTICULTURAL CAMPUS’ Rituals & routines Control systems 9% S tr on gl y di sa gr ee D is ag re e D on ’t k no w A gr ee S tr on gl y ag re e WORKSHOP 3

We need to be able to share our language and explore our understandings of culture in the organisations in which we work.

Stories & myths The 27% Paradigm Organisatio n structures 9% 27% 27%

Symbols Power structures

CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF RESEARCH AND ENQUIRY

2 A rich mix of techniques and strategies for enquiring into the phenomenon of culture in the contexts of past, current and imagined future experiences. Some discipline based ‘scientific’ methodologies but mainly trans-disciplinary common-sense methods of enquiry.

3 An emergent and improvised process – the planned educational design was not slavishly followed. Elements were dropped and new elements introduced in an organic, responsive and opportunistic way.

4 Research is perceived as a ‘journey’ for individuals and the group Angela Brew (2001)

• •

5 Dimensions of the teaching-research nexus Trowler and Wareham (2007) teachers and learners enquire together enquiry is embedded in the curriculum – what emerges is the curriculum!

• • • •

6 Ideological conceptions of research Teaching is about developing students’ minds so they can better appreciate the world, about making them autonomous. But teaching is also about empowering students to influence the minds of teachers Teaching is about giving students the skills to thrive in their careers and to contribute to the economy Teaching is about a concern for preparing students for a lifetime of learning and working in a culturally complex world